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7 Responses

of course not .. it means you are giving a strong hint to Google that your preferred country is for say is "India". So chances are that you will rank better in Google.co.in and searches made from that country ..

No, by enabling the country you target in Google Webmaster Tools you give Google a better idea on which language and which country you are targetting with your Web site. This `could` help you in the rankings for the specific region you're targeting. Google Webmaster Tools gave an even better explanation about Geotargeting which could be found here.

If you have a bingo site, and you geotarget it to the UK, it makes sense that your site shouldn't show up very highly in US based results, because online bingo for money is allowed in the UK whereas in the US it's not. That's part of the reason they have the geotargeting tool - to focus your site on the country where it's relevant and not on other countries it isn't relevant.

Google writes here - Geotargeting settings. You can use the geotargeting tool in Webmaster Tools to indicate to Google that your site is targeted at a specific country. Do this only if your site has a gTLD (generic top-level domain name). However, don’t use this tool if your site targets more than a single country. For example, it would make sense to set a target of Canada for a site about restaurants in Montreal; but it would not make sense to set the same target for a site that targets French speakers in France, Canada, and Mali.

Thanks Mark for the Google words and your insight about it but I am still not convinced with the ground realities...

Setting up a Geo target in Google webmaster cannot block you on other areas (this make no sense to me!). There is a strong possibility that US websites may not rank higher in UK search results but the website will be completely blocked (i don’t agree)

I have a website that has a preferred location as UAE and I can literally access that website from all regions... and on some general keywords it is ranking well in US although that is not my exact location...

Whilst one would hope that Google pay attention to geo-targeting via Webmaster Tools, in my experience it makes no material difference to rankings - either in your desired target or elsewhere.

There's been some debate as to whether or not it only influences 'Pages from the UK' (or whatever your chosen target) - however I've not seen proof it actually influences that either.

In short, if you geo-target via webmaster tools you're not blocking visitors via any other locations.

That said - it is worth noting (as I've alluded to above) geo-targeting via Webmaster tools isn't particularly effective in terms of actually establishing a geographic target for your website. As such if you're serious about establishing a geographic target this might not be the best way.

Thanks @Hannah @Moosa @Mark @Martijn @Deb for replying. I think that it is just a hint for google but it doesn't mean that it is going to block you from other countries. More than just a selection in the web master tool I think google will directly analyze your website and decide for which country your website is more "relevant" and of more "value to visitors".

If you are going to select any particular region, you will never block from all other locations.. in my opinion, if you are going to select a targeted country this will help you with ranking better in that particular location but you will still be appearing in all regions and ranking for the organic terms accordingly.

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